GCrites

I think the kids at Penn State rioted in defense of Paterno for similar reasons that the Occupy Everywhere folks are: Young people are sick of seeing people that they like and trust going down while the ones who really caused the problems don't. Of course, in this case Sandusky is in big trouble himself. Whether they are right or wrong, those college kids' were thinking "Joe Paterno didn't molest anyone, didn't see it happen and told his superiors, yet is still going down. BS! Let's have a riot!" Paterno's been in football, what, 70 years? Yet, he's never had to deal with something like this and there's probably little precedent for something this explosive. I also agree with Columbo that people are getting sanction fatigue.

^ I don't like chicks in pink cowboy hats. Bret Michales apparently didn't go there enough for them to keep the place open.

Another thing I noticed while living there is that Cincinnatians overall are quite intelligent. In order to hoodwink them, it takes a level of manipulation much higher than it would to fool the general population. Because of that, they have get all these "Great Manipulators" that are good at tripletalk, being extra slimy, work very hard and maximize the use of every connection they have available in order to sway opinions. It's one of the main reasons Cincinnati politics is so zany if you ask me. Washington D.C. city politics is the same way with all those politicos and highly educated people around. In the City of Columbus things are pretty straightforward because we don't have slimeballs trying to hijack the discourse all the time -- those people hang around the Statehouse instead!

Yessssssssss... I love it.

I've got the brochure in front of me now and yep, that's pretty much it. It also came with a graph stating that real estate in 43212 is declining in value, a statement that the Franklin County Auditor disagrees with. Most parts of Franklin County did lose value by the end of the 2000s, but not Grandview, 5xNW, Downtown, Short North/Italian Viallage/VV and Bexley.

Awesome! Who is he kid in your avatar? They actually blur out his face on the DVDs along with all the other child actors in the commericals. I don't know why.

I'm going to go back and read the brochure again when I get home, but I think they meant "forced" as in took a new job in another city, became empty nesters or want a larger house because of kids.

^Perspective employees: Be prepared to provide great customer service, or else "We'll put a boot in your..."

Well, it's not free, I'll tell you that!

Anybody else getting direct mail offering home value insurance? I got a letter from a company that will pay out a specified amount if you are forced to sell your home for less than it was worth in the past. Capitalism!

Rail transit drastically improves the perception of the bus system in every city I can think of.

There's so many technology out there that few people are going to take the time to sort them all out. People have to pick and choose based on what they want from technology, and right now a smart phone isn't at the top of my list. It'd be nice if most bus stops had more information. Rail stops have a wealth of information posted, but a lot of bus stops have a orange stripe painted on a telephone pole as their only info.

You'd think Red Bank was the Rubicon Trail or Zane's Trace in 1843 with all this proposed work.

The NTSB has found that you are seven times more likely to die on an discount, curbside pickup bus than a traditional terminal bus. PRESS RELEASE http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2011/111031.html NTSB Press Release National Transportation Safety Board Office of Public Affairs NTSB study shows rapid growth of curbside carriers poses challenges for effective safety oversight October 31, 2011 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman was joined today by U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez to release the results of a six-month study on curbside motorcoach safety initiated following a series of accidents in this rapidly growing industry. The study - requested by Senator Schumer and Representative Velázquez following the March 12, 2011, bus crash in the Bronx that killed 15 and injured 18 more - highlights key safety issues related to this fast-growing segment of the transportation industry. "Business and safety practices within the growing curbside bus industry create challenges for enforcement authorities and consumers alike when it comes to separating the safe operators from the unsafe operators," Chairman Hersman said during today's press conference. "It's abundantly clear that the oversight of this industry has not kept pace with its growth and the consequences have been deadly," said Senator Schumer. "The NTSB report is a wake-up call that we need a more rigorous regulatory regime and it provides a blueprint for how to fill the gaps. I want to thank Chairman Hersman for so quickly and efficiently responding to our goal and I look forward to working with her as we now begin the process of working to overhaul how this industry is regulated and monitored." "When travelers board a bus, they should feel safe, whether the trip starts in a terminal or at a Chinatown sidewalk," said Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY). "The NTSB study has revealed important information about curbside motorcoach travel and, in the coming weeks, we'll need to continue working to improve the safety regulations that govern this growing industry." This report is the first comprehensive evaluation of the motorcoach industry, with an emphasis on what are commonly known as curbside carriers. Curbside motorcoach operations consist of scheduled trips that begin or end at locations other than traditional bus terminals; most of these operations pick up or discharge passengers at one or more curbside locations. The study analyzed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) data and conducted field work, which included interviews, focus groups, and observations of compliance reviews and inspections. Key study findings include: In general, motorcoach travel is safe. However, curbside carriers with ten or fewer buses AND carriers who have been in business for ten years or less, have higher accident rates and higher roadside inspection violation rates. The fatal accident rate for curbside carriers from January 2005 to March 2011 was 7 times that of conventional bus operations: 1.4 fatal accidents per 100 vehicles for curbside carriers compared with 0.2 fatal accidents per 100 vehicles for conventional scheduled carriers. The exclusion of buses from routine enroute inspections - especially of curbside carriers that don't operate from terminals - reduces opportunities to discover safety violations. The FMCSA is overburdened. For example, 878 FMCSA and state personnel are responsible for compliance reviews for more than 765,000 U.S. motor carriers, a ratio of 1.15 investigators per 1,000 motor carriers. Bus driver fatigue, a contributing factor in many accidents, is a continuing safety concern. There is a lack of transparency in ticket sales. More than conventional carriers, curbside operators use online bus brokers. FMCSA has no authority to regulate these brokers. "Motorcoach safety is on the NTSB's Most Wanted List because of the potential for high-consequence accidents like we saw in the Bronx," said Chairman Hersman. "It's time to recognize that traditional transportation services have morphed into new business models that challenge existing regulatory constructs. I want to thank Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Velázquez for their leadership on this important safety issue." Since March 2011, the NTSB has initiated investigations into two curbside bus crashes and has been assessing safety issues in three others. These five accidents resulted in 22 fatalities and 159 injuries. This study and its Executive Summary are available online.

They probably just didn't like the inflexibility of that clause. Gotta have a parachute.

Hmm, I guess my days off Short Vine in the mid-2000s were the last days of grimeschool at UC. I liked grimeschool. This new stuff is like, Oakley stuff, which is more fun when you're 30.

Tiki, Tiki, Tiki! You can't frown when there's Tiki around. When I lived in Lancaster, the Tiki part of town was just around the corner with the Tiki pool, Tiki Lanes and Tiki movie theater.

Slow, but not agonizingly slow this time.

Looks like the ground was warm enough that the snow melted off real fast.

There are two types of finance majors out there. The kind that went to schools that funnel kids straight to "Wall Street" (or into similar roles) and the ones that didn't. The mindset of each group is vastly different. Ones that attended the Wall Street schools (mostly on the East Coast, but also add in University of Chicago and some schools out West) don't ask questions about the legitimacy of the wacky derivatives and improper hedged instruments because they believe deep down that those instruments really do what they are supposed to do. When they fail it blows their minds. The schools they attend are staffed with professors that have spent a lot of time on Wall Street themselves, believe in the infallacy of those instruments as well and teach in that manner. Their connections get those kids jobs because they have been taught in the way that they want them to think. On the other hand, finance majors from most other places (including here) wind up doing vastly different things. They take jobs at local banks, become investment advisers, get involved with the commodities market, become professors at local universities, become real estate developers/re-developers and even end up cleaning up Wall Street/the government's messes. They are more likely to work face-to-face with customers, clients, contractors and students -- the stakeholders. Of course, they're the ones who get yelled at when things go wrong even though they are much more in touch with people's actual needs than the 1 percenters. Since people around here are more likely to know how things work "down at the farm", our graduates are the ones in Chicago and Peoria handing the tangible assets in the commodities market (the University of Chicago also produces these; they are probably the most legendary financial school for those who understand the big picture). Still, they have a harder time finding well-paying jobs than those from the Wall Street schools. Nonetheless, people who would be involved with the sciences did get steered toward Wall Street. All those computer whizzes, mathematicians and physicists got the really good financial jobs, not the finance majors. The belief was that creating new instruments and algorithms was the secret to long-term financial prosperity (or even short-term; if things go wrong just take the money and run), so the mathematicians cooked up formulas, the physicists did their thing since at the granular level money follows the path of least resistance just like water and the computer whizzes wrote the code to make race through the processors. Since the models were so dependent on formulas and algorithms, a number going out of the range of possibilities specified in the model could break it. Generalists can foresee those numbers going out of range, but they either shut up because there was money to be made, were told that everything would be OK by the model-makers or didn't think that the numbers wouldn't go out of range themselves because their belief systems included concepts such as constant growth, low energy costs, moderate unemployment and assets retaining their value. There's the problem: Employers today want specialists and punish generalists. Since so many generalists were cranked out starting in the '60s, employers feel that there is an oversupply of them in the job market. Young generalists are punished the most -- sales and manual labor are often their only choices and if they don't like it, T.S. "They really should have known." But nobody told them. Their folks were able to make money as generalists and schools can't tell someone that their picking the wrong major. The growing distaste for generalists has lead to the boat being steered by 10 different people at once -- each located in different parts of the ship.

I started seeing a lot more broken-down cars by the side of the road starting in about 2007, which leads me to believe that people are deferring their maintenance.

After 1965, they could cover up the shoddy craftsmanship with wood paneling, shag carpet and loud wallpaper! These days they don't even care; just paint everything white, throw on a floating floor and leave the mistakes for the owner to take care of. The one thing I have noticed with early drywall from the '50s and '60s is that people didn't know how to finish it all that well because it was a new material.

Columbus has several rail suppliers in the area including Griffin Wheel in Groveport and Columbus Steel Castings on the South Side.

If I made $250K, I'd be filthy rich considering that I'm single, have a roommate, live in an inexpensive apartment, shop at the thrift store and drive old cars. I don't even like most new stuff -- it seems generic to me.

If she wants every house in the neighborhood decorated for Halloween, she can do it herself. Or, maybe you can hire the guy that puts those huge Transformers in his yard to come over an put in a big purple Soundwave in your yard.